Intro: Welcome to the Masterful Coach podcast, with Molly Claire, where coaches learn skill mastery, business mastery, and life mastery at a whole new level. If you’re serious about creating a meaningful coaching business that makes a difference, you’re in the right place. And now your host, master life and business coach, Molly Claire.

Molly Claire: All right coaches, well this is kind of a unique episode because normally, I am recording my podcast and then sending it over to Daniel and his team. And so, today he’s recording it and I don’t have to do anything and he’s here to do the interview and everything from start to finish. So, welcome, Daniel, I’m excited to have you.

Daniel Abendroth: Thanks so much for having me, I’m really excited to talk about this.

Molly Claire: This is great. So, Daniel is my podcast guy, that’s how I refer to him. He worked with me on my first podcast and my current podcast. I’m going to have him tell you a little bit more about what he does, but he and his wife have become a husband-and-wife team. They work together on the business and just do a great job. So, I’m excited to have Daniel here with all of you to help you, to help you if you are thinking about starting a podcast. He can give you some great insights and things to consider. So, let’s dive in.

Daniel Abendroth: Awesome!

Molly Claire: All right. So, Daniel first, tell my audience what exactly you do.

Daniel Abendroth: I do all the things to make gay podcasts successful, except for recording. At the very most, my clients will record the audio, send it to me and not really have to think about it unless they want to, of course. To kind of break it down even more, I take the audio and clean it up, background noise, all that kind of unwanted audio and I listen through the entire thing and take out any ums, stutters, “um,” like that one.

Everything that you don’t want your audience to hear. Whenever you sit in a room by yourself talking into a piece of metal, pretending you’re talking to somebody that’s not really there, it’s really awkward and uncomfortable, and you’re not your same kind of coherent self, concise speaking. So, I like to say that I make you sound like the expert that you are.

Molly Claire: Yes, I love it, and that it does take so much off your hands. And I know for me, there’s flexibility in how much or how little you can do for someone in relation to their podcast. And for those of you listening that are thinking you may want to do your own editing and your own process, still stay with us, because Daniel’s going to give you some really good tips and insights. So, whether you want to hire someone to do a little bit or a lot, or not much at all, I think this can be relevant to all of them.

Daniel Abendroth: Absolutely.

Molly Claire: And tell me Daniel, how did you get into this to begin with?

               Daniel Abendroth: So, it all started back in 2015. So, I had a blog, but I felt that—it’s like a podcast going to be better for the content. Neither one were good for the content because the content itself wasn’t good.

Molly Claire: Sometimes we can all be honest looking back at where we started, right? But hey, it was our start.

Daniel Abendroth: Exactly. The content was way too broad, I talked about anything and everything, and I just didn’t really come into it, and the audio quality was awful. Please don’t go to try to find it. I listened to an old episode and I was beat red just because of how bad it sounded and how awkward I sounded. But I found that I enjoyed the post production and all the backend stuff, and that’s kind of been true for me for a long time. So, I started selling my services on Fiverr and grew and grew, found clients more and more, found clients that really encouraged me.

So, my second or third client that I found on Fiverr was a life coach, and from there, she referred to other coaches, referred to others and just kind of spider webbed into me finding this amazing niche where I had one coach—I think we worked together for like a month or two, she was like, “I need you to raise my rate and retroactively bill me for what you should have been charging because you’re not charging enough and I can’t sleep at night because of it.” And I’m like, “That’s amazing,” like what other industry is going to tell you to charge them more?

Molly Claire: Yes, I know, right? It’s like a couple times, my admin has said like, “My rates are going up,” I’m like, “Thank goodness, I’m so excited please send me a bill.”

Daniel Abendroth: Exactly. That was later in 2015, kept growing and then at the end of 2017, I quit my job and started doing this full time and I’ve been doing it ever since. And then as I mentioned, my wife is my partner in the business. She had her own stationary shop where she sold stickers and planner supplies on Etsy, that had run its course kind of got burnt out, wanting to do something else. She saw this need—I guess kind of we both saw it—with Roth Media because I am very technical oriented.

Molly can probably attest to the brevity of many of my emails that might come off kind of curt, whereas, I just don’t use as much flowery language. It’s kind of, yeah, I’m probably a little too brief sometimes, but she has a lot of that personality that helps communicate where I kind of fall short and then if she can see a lot kind of bigger idea things, whereas I’m focusing on editing and taking care of all these technical things, she can be like, “Okay, here’s what we need to do for your show to improve it here and there.”

The biggest thing she has helped with is launching new shows, because in my brevity and focusing on the technical side, I would just send a potential podcaster a list of chores, basically like, “Here’s the things that I’ll need, do that and then, we’ll touch base.” I think one went like 18 months before we finally launched.

Molly Claire: Right, yeah.

Daniel Abendroth: So, Michelle started joining me on the calls, taking notes because that was something I struggle with and really helping our clients through that launch process, where now, typically, it’ll take six to eight weeks on the long side of things.

Molly Claire: It’s so smooth and dialed in, and I want to just highlight a couple of things you said for my listeners because... Well, first of all, I have to say, I’ve never found your emails to be curt, I’m a very to the point person, so it works very well for me, let’s just get it taken care of.

Daniel Abendroth: Oh, good, you’re my people.

Molly Claire: So, I honestly haven’t noticed that, but I know in working with you and Michelle, that it is a very complementary relationship in terms of what each of you do so well. I want to highlight that not only in relation to this episode today, but for those of you listening for you as a coach, I think sometimes it can be easy to think that you’re supposed to be good at everything and supposed to do everything just because you think of yourself as a: one woman show or one stop shop, but that’s not true. And in fact, finding the right people to compliment your own genius, is really how you spend more time doing what you love and how you thrive. So, I really love that you just brought up that whole idea.

Daniel Abendroth: We were at Podfest few weeks ago, and we had a couple people come up to and talk to us because they know we work together and how it worked out. And people are like, “You know, I’m thinking about doing this with my husband, my wife.” Well, I’m not just sure, I want to say we’re kind of a unique situation, I’m not sure how many couples can complement each other the way we do. And it’s kind of crazy, with the pandemic, couples are kind of going through all these struggles because they’re forced to quarantine together and....

Molly Claire: Yes.

Daniel Abendroth: She quit her job in 2018 or 2019 before she joined on Roth Media. And we have a small two-bedroom apartment and the second bedroom is our office, I could reach out and touch her because we share the same office. It’s like we’ve been working in close quarters all this time, so the pandemic wasn’t anything different, really?

Molly Claire: I’m glad you pointed that out, it is unique because if you’re listening, don’t automatically think that your spouse would be a great business partner because you have to have the right skillset match, right? Not only do you have to have that personal compatibility to be able to work together, but the right skillset match and you guys happen to have that, which is really cool.

Daniel Abendroth: There was one time she was wanting to learn how to edit, to kind of help me out, take off the workload. So, she sat down—I think we got about five minutes into me editing, she’s like, “You know what? I’m out, this isn’t for me.”

Molly Claire: I understand that, I would get about two minutes in, so... Before we dive into some practical tips for my audience, I’d love to know what is it that you love about what you do?

Daniel Abendroth: Full transparency, I love not working at nine to five, not going in. The job I had that I quit to do this, I was a sales rep, so I worked for a local Red Bull distributor. I’d be getting up at five, six in the morning—well, before I got promoted, I was getting up two or three in the morning, and then when I got promoted, I could sleep in till six, and I’d work 50, 60 hours a week, not have any free time. And since doing this, I’m able to kind of set my schedule, if there’s a day where I’m just not in to it and I don’t feel like it, I can take a day off and just focus on me.

Molly Claire: Own your life.

Daniel Abendroth: Exactly.

Molly Claire: Own your own life.

Daniel Abendroth: But on top of that, I’ve always kind of been more of like a support role growing up. I’ve never really wanted to be the star or like center of attention, but I always kind of behind the scenes, helping others shine, and this has been the perfect role to kind of fulfill that.

Molly Claire: I love that. Whenever you edit my stuff, I know sometimes your team does it, but I’ll start talking and then I’m like, “I’m so sorry, I’m starting over again, thank you for your help.” It’s nice to be able to just record the podcast, let it all go and know that you’re going to fix it. It’s very helpful.

Daniel Abendroth: I love hearing those messages like, “Hey, Daniel, sorry about that, let me redo it.”

Molly Claire: So, first, why should someone start a podcast?

Daniel Abendroth: For coaches, it’s an amazing tool to grow your business and connect with your audience in a whole different way. There’s something really weird about podcasting from a listener standpoint, there’s this weird intimacy. You feel like you’re sitting with a friend chit-chatting or just listening to them talk about something that they’re passionate about. I don’t get that from other mediums.

Molly Claire: Yeah, I agree.

Daniel Abendroth: Podcasting is like this. For a lot of coaches, they might have high-ticket offers or people don’t know what coaching is or what it looks like, they’re going to be hesitant to make that jump from not doing anything, to paying for a program. So, the podcast, one, it’s a little teaser, that you can kind of understand what coaching looks like, what to expect, which kind of breaks that barrier to entry, but it also gets them to know you. For one, know whether or not you’re the right coach for them because I have one coach who is very fiery and very blunt and tells it like it is, type thing. So, a lot of people wouldn’t work with her because that’s not kind of the coaching they want, but listening to her show, they can know that ahead of time and not waste their time pursuing that.

Molly Claire: Yes, absolutely.

Daniel Abendroth: And then, you can teach the basics. So, there’s a lot of prep work when it goes into coaching and use the podcast to kind of get those basics to get a potential client ready. There’s only so far you can go with a podcast that a lot of people will need to take that next step forward when they’re ready to it, who do you think that they’re going to go to? It’s going to be that coach that they’ve been listening to for a month, six months, a year, however long.

Molly Claire: That person they’re familiar with. I love that you brought up that sense of intimacy because I think that’s true, you feel you know someone, like you’re having conversations with them every week when you’re listening to them. I know sometimes, it’s so fascinating when I’ll get an application in for something and a coach will say, “This is why I want to work with Molly.” And as they’re writing, it’s amazing to me how well they really know me and my style and what I plan to do with them, and I think a lot of that is from listening to the podcast because it’s a really genuine way for them to get to know and understand that.

And the other thing that I love about it is that: most people that listen to my podcast won’t hire me, if you look just statistically. I think it’s such a powerful way to be able to help people and change their lives even if they never work with you, and the ones that are perfectly suited to work with you have that chance to get to know you, so it builds that trust before you ever get started. So, it’s like a win-win on either side.

Daniel Abendroth: Yeah, absolutely.

Molly Claire: So, let me ask you, because I know I’ve had some clients that I work with that start a podcast immediately when they start their coaching business and there is benefit in them for that. I see that it helps them to kind of find their voice, get moving, create some traction and I know some people wait until later. I think there’s definitely benefits to both, but from your perspective, I would love to know your opinion about when is a good time to start a podcast? And also really, who are the ones that you think should do it?

Daniel Abendroth: It depends, and that’s a frustrating, annoying answer in podcasting that comes up a lot, but a lot of it does depend on the person considering it. There are a lot of benefits to starting it right away. I have one client who told us that her podcast has helped her focus her message to the point to where a friend of hers who’s not a client, not somebody who does coaching, just listen to your podcast be supportive, is like, “You sound so focused, your message is so crystal clear now since you started your podcast.”

So, if you’re struggling with that, podcast could be a great way. However, if you’re looking to grow your business, podcasting probably isn’t the right avenue, it’s definitely a long burn. We typically tell clients, don’t really expect a huge impact for at least a year. So, if that’s not what you’re looking for, if you’re looking to grow, then the time, energy and money that you spend on podcasting is probably spent in other avenues that will have a quicker impact on your business.

Molly Claire: Absolutely. I mean, one thing that I talk with my clients about all the time is this idea that there are the quick wins in your business, and then there are the steady growth activities. Now, on one hand, the sort of quick win aspect will be that it may not be providing a return financially for someone who starts it out right away, but it is maybe that experience or that dialing in the message if that’s what they’re wanting out of it. But it definitely is a steady growth long term activity where you are building your audience, building the foundation and all of that.

Daniel Abendroth: I have one show that I work on and she says that her podcast is her biggest lead generation, she gets the most clients from her show than any other thing, but she’s been doing it for over five years now.

Molly Claire: Yes, exactly, exactly. I think that’s so worth bringing up. And for those of you listening, if you’re thinking, “Oh, I’m brand new, maybe I should start it now.” That’s definitely not the message I’m giving, I think, for some people. Well, honestly, I want to kind of go back to that because while I’ve seen some people start a podcast right away, I would say that’s been the exception rather than the rule.

And for those few people, they sift it through and decided that was a good way for them to be courageous, put themselves out there, to practice, all of that and to get it moving. But people can do the same thing with writing, writing their blogs, doing all kinds of things.

.And my guess is—and I’d be interested to know your opinion on this, Daniel, but I would think as a general rule of them, the time to start the podcast is maybe after you do have more of your message, more of your branding, more of that beneath you and start with a little more focus. What’s your thought on that?

Daniel Abendroth: Your branding is probably one of the first things that you need to focus on, grow a little bit, have an idea, be able to live in an audience through social media, through your newsletter, through other mediums, that way when you do launch your show, you can have a bigger impact from the start. Once you kind of build your audience, have a clear brand that you can kind of focus into the show, and then use your show to dial in even more and go out from there.

Molly Claire: I know I’m kind of talking at the whole spectrum new to further along for my listeners. You know, if you’ve been thinking about a podcast, I think these are all things to consider. Is it something you’d want to start to kind of get your traction going and find your voice, or is it something that you want to plan to start in after you’re ways into your business a little bit, and you really have a clear message and a purpose for that podcast to where it is a matter of building out that audience and need long term.

So, there’s potentially how far along someone is in their business. And also, would you say that there are some people or some types of business specifically, that are better suited to doing the format of a podcast.

Daniel Abendroth: I wouldn’t say there are certain businesses, I think there’s the podcast about pest control. So, if you have a niche, you can’t get too niche for a podcast.

Molly Claire: Oh, that’s so true.

Daniel Abendroth: And even if you get so niche and you have a small audience. Your audience is super focused to exactly who you’re trying to reach, a small audience isn’t a lack of success. But as far as the person, there’s definitely some people that are better suited to podcasting. For me, I can’t do a solo podcast, I’ve tried it twice. My first show that I talked about was awful, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t get a clear coherent message out there. And then Michelle joined in and it got better, and then did the same thing a few years ago when we started another podcast and I probably spent two hours struggling, trying to get the first episode recorded before I finally threw my hands up, said, “You know what? It’s not for me.”

And then again, my wife joined in and that duo, we worked well together on so many things, that was another thing. I probably would never start a solo podcast, I’m a better writer than I am speaker, so then I probably focus on writing or other things. One client—I think we did four or five episodes, to where she just spent so many hours focusing on writing this script, getting everything done and being unsure of it and just having a lot of self-doubt that she just never recorded. Having an awareness of where your strength lies, maybe podcasting isn’t for you, and that’s not a bad thing.

Molly Claire: As I hear you talking, I think about this idea that I talk with my clients about. You want to lean into those areas where you’re the strongest, where you have a natural gift, natural ability, and there’s an ease about it. And also, there are certain things that will be worth doing and kind of overcoming those challenges, and I think only you really know how to sift through that. And I definitely enjoy the podcast format, and I will say, I remember the first podcast that I did and that when it launched, I wanted to go hide under a rock.

I was so mortified and every time someone would message me and say, “Wow, your podcast is great, I listened, I heard it,” I just wanted to delete all of them because I was absolutely mortified and Daniel has the luxury—if we call it that, of hearing some of my insecurities or things that come up behind the scenes that get edited out, some of that is part of the deal.

And so, it’s not like it’s an all-or-nothing, it’s not like, “Oh, well, if you have any doubt or fear, it’s not for you.” So, I think there’s this space of lean into your gifts, what comes natural? What has that ease? And then also, where are those places where you know there’s a little bit of overcoming doubt and fear too, kind of a combination.

Daniel Abendroth: I know a lot of people who use podcasting to help them become a better speaker.

Molly Claire: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Daniel Abendroth: I know that for myself. I’m kind of surprised at how coherent I sound and that’s because I’ve been doing podcasting, I have a YouTube channel, teach a bunch of stuff because of it, I’m a better speaker.

Molly Claire: I would love to know what are three things for someone to consider who is just starting out with podcasting?

Daniel Abendroth: The first thing is have a clear understanding of your ideal client and brand. You need to know who you’re talking to and how to talk to them. An exercise that Michelle will take potential new clients with whenever through the launch process, is coming up with an avatar, like image of your ideal listener.

She goes through, you give them a name, you give them a background, what’s their occupation? How much money do they make? What are their hobbies? What do they look like? And paint this picture of who they are. And then when you’re recording, pretend you’re sitting in a room with them and talking to them, or even find a picture of a friend or family member who you trust and put their picture up. Just have a clear focus of who you want to reach, and just know that can change

Molly Claire: Absolutely. Over time it can change. And I know for me, when I’m speaking, oftentimes I sort of move back and forth between speaking to you like one person and also kind of making it broad, like the people listening and making what I’m talking about relevant to a little bit of a varied audience.

Daniel Abendroth: I have one client who gets a lot of messages that are like, “It feels like you’re talking to me.” So, having that focus of talking to one person, you know, you can’t branch out to everybody, but also just focusing on one person as to that intimacy and that connection.

Molly Claire: And the more dialed your niches is, the easier that is.

Daniel Abendroth: And that’s where your branding comes into it, is having colors and branding in everything that goes with it, that appeals to your ideal listener and ideal audience.

Molly Claire: Okay, what else? What else should someone consider?

Daniel Abendroth: Consistency is key, super important. Most podcasts you’ll find are every week, but it can be every other week, once a month, however long that you feel that you can keep up with, but just make sure you stick to that schedule.

Molly Claire: I was wondering about that because I’ve always been in the frame of mind that weekly is better because people kind of have it more in a routine, and I’ve always assumed that if someone’s podcast wasn’t weekly, that they probably wouldn’t have as steady of a following even if it were biweekly or once a month, is there any truth to that or not necessarily?

Daniel Abendroth: I would say yes and no. As media consumers, we’re conditioned to a weekly schedule, TV shows come out, new episode every week, everything is weekly. And with podcasting, that’s kind of been the norm. So, I would say, ideally, you should aim for weekly, if you can manage it, but if you connect to your audience, then it doesn’t really matter how often you do it, as long as it’s consistent.

And consistent for multiple reasons, one, so your audience can expect it. It’s important from a personal standpoint. If you’re trying to do weekly, you’re struggling to do it, you’re going to miss a week and once you miss that first week, it’s easier to miss that second one, easier to miss that third one, and it’s easier to —in the industry, we call it “pod fading,” but it’s easier to lose that momentum and neglect to show the longer that goes on.

Molly Claire: So, it’s better to commit to a less frequent schedule that you can commit to, then try to do it more often than is feasible for you and then being inconsistent.

Daniel Abendroth: It’s easier to ramp up to a weekly release than starting from with a weekly release and struggling, and then trying to tone it back.

Molly Claire: Such a good thing to think about because I know some people do worry about starting because they think, “Well, I don’t want the pressure of doing one every week,” but you don’t really have to, you can move toward that.

Daniel Abendroth: And you can help yourself out. So, before you launch, record several episodes and that way, if you do struggle one week, like you can’t get something out, you have a bank of episodes that you can still release. And then, the next week you can record two episodes.

Molly Claire: I have to say, what I love about having help with my podcast—There have been times when I’ve been further ahead than others over these last few months, as I’ve been shifting things in my business, it’s like every week I’m just really glad that your team is there to help me to put it together because I want to show up for my people. nAd it’s definitely a benefit when you can batch, and there’s also a lot of benefit in having a team to help you when you’re moving forward with your biz. One more thing, what else should people consider as they’re starting out?

Daniel Abendroth: Be willing to commit the time to it, understanding that it’ll probably be a year before you really see the ROI, before you see the growth that you’re kind of expecting, but also on a per episode basis, you might underestimate how long an episode takes. And it depends on your format. Some people sit down with an idea in mind and just kind of talk for an hour and have a really clear message, some not so clear, some like to have an outline of the topics they want to touch and what order, and go through point by point and some write the full script for the entire episode.

Writing a full script is a lot of work, takes a lot of time on top of any research you need to do, or any prep work that you need to do, plus a time of just sit down and actually record it. So, there is a lot of time, and then if you’re doing it yourself, editing takes probably about twice as long as the raw recording. So, if you record a 30-minute episode, it’s probably going to take you an hour to edit it, once you get better at it. When you’re first starting out, it might be even longer plus learning how to edited and all that stuff is a whole nother story.

And then, promoting the episode and social media post and the blog post and everything else that goes with it. So, just go into understanding the amount of time that it’s going to take you.

Molly Claire: Yeah, I love that. That’s so smart because I know for me, I definitely underestimate how long something is going to take and I overestimate how quickly I can get things done. So... I’m a work in progress on that.

Daniel Abendroth: And that’s where batching comes in handy because you can devote two or three days to a podcast, however we want to do it, you know? Like, we’re preparing one day, recording four episodes and another day that would probably drain me so much, maybe like doing two episodes fully, then two episodes, however you want to do it, but sitting down for like two days in a month, as opposed to trying to carve out an afternoon every week, might be easier for some.

Molly Claire: Just to you listening, think about for you, if or when you are ready to start a podcast, think about how you work best. Do you work best when you have a pretty extreme focus on something? Do you work best recording morning, night? Really think about and consider your flow of how you work best and what will make sense for you in terms of the consistency with the podcast for sure?

Daniel Abendroth: Absolutely.

Molly Claire: The last thing I want to ask you is kind of a two-part question or two direction question, I guess. One is, I would love for you to speak to someone who is ready to get started, what are their first steps? And if someone actually wanted to work with your team, what would that look like? What would be the next steps if they went that direction?

Daniel Abendroth: Somebody that wants to do it themselves versus someone that wants to hire out?

Molly Claire: Yeah.

Daniel Abendroth: For somebody that’s wanting to start out, the basic things you need are: microphone, choosing a Dynamic microphone over Condenser. Condensers are really good but they’re super sensitive and most people aren’t going to have a recording studio in their basement.

So, whenever you look for a microphone, a Dynamic is a way you want to go. Quick recommendations, the Samson Q9U is the one I’m currently using, my top recommendation right now. I think it’s about $150, maybe $200, I got mine off eBay, the entry level would be the Samson Q2U, which is about $60 on Amazon. Great mics, they are XLR and USBs, so it can take directly to the laptop or to the computer with no other hardware, but if you have a mixer or whatever, something fancy, it works with that too.

The name of your show, be obvious about it, don’t be QC, don’t name it after yourself, you know, there’s a reason why it’s called The Masterful Coach and not The Molly Claire Show, though you could probably get away with The Molly Claire Show since you’re so famous.

Molly Claire: That’s right.

Daniel Abendroth: Artwork should be a square image between 1400 pixels and 3000, it needs to be simple because it’s going to be the thumbnail on your phone. So, make sure that you don’t have too many details like you’re going to get lost when it’s shrunk down. Make sure that your show name is clear and legible, both large and small and put your face on it. Like we said before, podcast is a great way to connect with your audience. The image is going to be the first thing, so show them that smiling face.

Molly Claire: Yes, makes it so much more personal.

Daniel Abendroth: Exactly. We use melodyloops.com and uppbeat.io. That’s U-P-P-B-E-A-T.-I-O. Both have really good search functions that you can search by like the mood or vibes. So, if you want something corporate, uplifting, whatever feeling that you want to emphasize, there’s a great way to search for that. You want to find music that matches your voice. I remember listening to this show and the intro music was like heavy metal, hard rock, just like really going in, and then comes on and he is really soft spoken, and really kind of quiet. It was just like a really disconcerting kind of disconnect.

Molly Claire: I think that’s a little tricky.

Daniel Abendroth: It is.

Molly Claire: I think it takes a little bit of time to figure it out and find the right match, the right thing.

Daniel Abendroth: There are so many times I’ll spend an hour looking through music and then just finally being like, “Oh, I can’t do this,” and just picking a random one that I found. It’s so hard to find the right music, and that’s where Melody Loops and Uppbeat really helped, being able to filter by the tone you want. And what we recommend is recording your intro or recording a little bit, playing that while listening to the music because then you can match the beat of the music to the cadence of your voice.

If you’re talking really fast and really quick, you don’t want something like a slower piece of music and then vice versa. So, you don’t want a really upbeat if you’re much more slower and deliberate in your speaking. And so, by listening to your intro while listening to the music, you can see how they match up, and maybe you need to find music, or maybe you need to re-record in the cadence of the music.

And then, once you find the right music, what we can do is listen to the music while we’re recording, and then your voice will kind of naturally follow the rhythm of the music. Plan your first 10 episodes. So, if you’re having a lot of doubt, get those first 10 episodes planned out, that might seem daunting, but trust me, it’s worth it. There was one time that I was thinking about a new show. So, let me map out my first 10 episodes and by the time I was done, I had 43 planned out.

Molly Claire: Oh my gosh.

Daniel Abendroth: And if you can plan out 43 episodes or even 10, that takes so much thought away from the rest of the show, because you have so much already done.

Molly Claire: And that’s when you know, I’ve got plenty here, right?

Daniel Abendroth: Exactly.

Molly Claire: If I can come up with that many episodes.

Daniel Abendroth: If you’re just spewing it, it’s like, “Okay, I’m good to go,” and then finally just record. These are all tips, but you won’t know until you try it, ...and maybe you’ll get five episodes in and realize you hate your artwork or you hate your music or your show isn’t the right focus or the right niche or whatever, nothing is permanent in podcasting.

I remember, Molly, when we first started working together, I don’t remember what it was, but you had one show that you started out with, and you’re like, “Oh, my focus is completely different.” So, we renamed the show, changed the artwork, changed everything about it. You’re not set in stone with anything; everything can change, so just start, figure it out and then reevaluate.

And if that all sounds way too daunting, well, good news for you, there’s a whole company out there dedicated to helping you out there. My wife and I work together, if you want to just kind of talk with us, get an idea of what we offer, if you have a question about podcasting, we do offer free consultation. You can book a 30-minute session with both of us and we’ll just kind of chit chat for a little bit, see if it’s right fit, see what you’re looking for, see how we can help that is at www.rothmedia.audio/consultation. And of course, I’ll make sure my team puts that in the show notes.

Molly Claire: Yes, I was just going to say, hopefully, your team can put it in the show notes for me.

Daniel Abendroth: And I have an assistant editor, so we do the editing, so we’ll clean it up, all the mouth noises. There’s going to be a lot that you didn’t hear in this episode where we talked over each other, or I needed a long pause to think of my answer, he probably didn’t hear any of this because we cut it out. I do the uploading and scheduling and everything. So basically, Molly sends me her audio, I edit it, clean it up, I’ll upload it to her media host, schedule it on her website, I’ll send it to her so she can listen to it, just make sure everything is topnotch and just kind of take it all off her plate.

We offer show notes and transcriptions, and if you want an idea of what we can offer, Molly gets the full package. So, if you go on our website, you can see what we do for show notes, what the transcripts look like and what the audio sounds like. And then the launch process, we say six to eight weeks, but if it takes longer, it takes longer. We’re not going to punish you for taking longer, but we go through helping you find your music.

               Michelle actually go through all these songs and send you five options and you can pick from one of those fives, and if those don’t work, she’ll send you five more. We’ll help you come up with the name of your show, get the idea of that, what your artwork should look like, we’ll help you plan out your episodes and come up with show titles and everything. So, if you’re having any kind of hesitancy about launching, our launch process is super smooth, super easy, and we’d love to help you out with that.

Molly Claire: The thing I think is really nice about it, you know, you were saying it might take longer, it’s not like you’re going to punish someone. I think that the process is really nice because it’s a nice combination of, okay, we’ve got you, we’re holding your hand through this, we have a timeline set, we’re going to make this easy for you to move forward with it, but it’s definitely not a high-pressure, intense situation, it’s kind of that perfect balance, I think.

Daniel Abendroth: We were working with one show and I think it took three months to finally launch, which is totally fine, and we worked through that. So, part of the launch process is we schedule weekly calls. So, we sit down for an hour…Well, usually it’s going to be Michelle because she’s the one that handles a lot of that, but I’ll pop in whenever you need to talk about the technical side of things.

We sit down for an hour, she goes through what you need to do, you brainstorm, come with ideas and then she’ll send you away with homework, and then you do that throughout the week, and then you sit back down the next week and hit it again until you’re ready to go.

Molly Claire: And I think she makes it really easy because she just gives little bite size things, right? One small thing and is there to help, so I think it’s really nice. Anyways, in my life that I can find someone to help me take care of little details, it’s the best thing, it’s so worth it.

Daniel Abendroth: Yeah, because podcasting, there’s a lot of steps to it. It can be—I don’t want to scare you away if you’re looking to do it yourself, it is possible, people do it all the time, a lot of people that shouldn’t be doing it, but it is very doable, there’s a lot of information out there. I’ll have that link in the show notes, I have a YouTube channel where I talk about podcast editing, that’s the entire focus of it, but I do have one video.

The software that I use to edit shows is called Reaper. It’s like a 20-minute video of how to install and set it up, record, edit and export it. So, I’ll put that in there, so if you’re all looking to yourself, it’s a really kind of comprehensive video on how to do it. But there is something to be said about having a team to help you with it.

As a coach, you’re busy, you have your clients that you need to serve, your focus and priorities are elsewhere. So, it’s like, yeah, you can learn how to edit podcast, you can learn how to do all this stuff. But is that where your focus should be? If it is, then perfect, more power to you, do it, but if you don’t have that time or you want to focus your attention elsewhere, having somebody who’s been doing it for… what? Seven years now, is really valuable.

Molly Claire: It’s nice, absolutely. So, listen coach, if you’re teetering, if you’re feeling hesitant, here’s what I want to offer to you. If it’s something you’ve been thinking about for a while and wanting to do, go ahead and tiptoe into it, go ahead and if you’re thinking about getting help, set up a call with Daniel and his team, if you are thinking you want to do it yourself, go back, listen to these first steps and just start taking those first steps because I really think that it is just taking those first steps that really is the key and the thing that too often, we don’t do.

And by the way, don’t make a bigger deal about your podcast or your episodes than it needs to be. Sometimes my episodes are very short and it’s useful, sometimes the shortest episodes are the ones that I hear from people, “Wow, this is exactly what I needed to hear.” So, if you are having pressure and fear and angst and that is what is stopping you, go ahead and take those first steps because who knows, you just might create something that will change someone’s life.

Daniel Abendroth: And if you’re a listener of Molly and you want to do it yourself, but you’re not sure how to do it, still schedule a call for listeners of this show, I’ll set aside an hour, help you get started on your own.

Molly Claire: Oh, that would be amazing, thank you so, so much. Take him up on that offer, you guys, for sure.

Daniel Abendroth: Mm-hmm.

Molly Claire: All right. Well, Daniel, thank you so much for being here, it’s been amazing.

Daniel Abendroth: Absolutely, thank you for having me.

Molly Claire: Alll right, have a good one.

Outro: Thanks for listening to The Masterful Coach Podcast. If you’re ready for complete support as you build your coaching business, check out Molly’s collaborative community, The Masterful Coach Collective; it’s a place where you’ll have access to the best experts in the biz, community support and guidance as you build your perfect business 90 days at a time. Visit www.mollyclaire.com for details.